memeorandum: Trump Tax Plan Will Not Bolster Growth, Economists Say (Binyamin Appelbaum/New York Times)

11:55 PM ET, May 12, 2017

Top Items:

White House Staff React in Real-Time as Trump Tweets: ‘Jesus’ … It was 7:51 a.m. eastern time on a Friday, and the president was angrily tweetstorming again. — This time, it was about “Fake News,” “the Russians,” China and beef, James Comey and “tapes,” and his sometimes hapless White House staff.

more at Mediagazer »

Pierre Thomas / ABC News:

Comey furious at lack of respect White House showed, sources say — Former FBI Director James Comey was furious at the lack of respect the White House showed him in the way he was fired, sources have told ABC News. — Associates say he is simmering at some of the comments directed …

Discussion: Politico, Raw Story, portal.liberalamerica.org and Politicus USA

Pamela Brown / CNN:

Source: Comey is ‘not worried about any tapes’ — Washington (CNN)Former FBI Director James Comey is “not worried about any tapes” of conversations between him and President Donald Trump, a source familiar with the matter told CNN Friday, adding that “if there is a tape, there's nothing he is worried about” that could be on it.

Discussion: Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, HuffPost, The American Conservative, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, CANNONFIRE, Daily Kos, RedState, Politicus USA, Media Matters for America, Daily Mail, ThinkProgress, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Political Wire and Axios

Megan Cerullo / New York Daily News:

Roger Stone contradicts Trump, says he has spoken to the President ‘very recently’ — The Trump administration can't keep its story straight. — President Trump took to Twitter early Wednesday morning to shoot down reports that his confidant, political strategist Roger Stone …

Discussion: Mother Jones

Austin Wright / Politico:

Comey declines to testify before Senate committee — Ousted FBI Director James Comey will not appear in a closed session before the Senate Intelligence Committee next Tuesday. — Comey had been invited by Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and top Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia.

Discussion: Power Line, Washington Post, Fox News, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, The Talking Dog and IJR

Joe DePaolo / Mediaite:

‘It Took My Breath Away’: Chris Wallace Offers Stunning, Must-Watch Critique of Trump White House — Chris Wallace has spent the better part of the past four decades reporting on Washington for NBC, ABC, and now Fox News. And given his lengthy tenure of Beltway reporting …

Discussion: The Week

Justin Miller / The Daily Beast:

Did Donald Trump's Dinner With FBI Boss James Comey Break the Law? … The timing of President Donald Trump's dinner with FBI Director James Comey raises the question of whether the president attempted to—or did in fact—interfere with an ongoing FBI investigation. And that's a federal offense.

Discussion: Shareblue, New York Times, MSNBC, Washington Examiner, USA Today, CNN, Washington Post, The Mahablog, The Atlantic, Outside the Beltway, Breitbart and Mediaite

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Trump threatens to cancel White House briefings because it is ‘not possible’ …

Discussion: Salon, New York Times, CNBC, Mediaite, Raw Story, Geller Report, CNNMoney, The Root, The Hill, The Guardian, Daily Kos, fox5sandiego.com, IJR, The Daily Caller, RedState, twitchy.com, Vox, Washington Free Beacon, ThinkProgress and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

AP News:
The Latest: Senate intel chair sees no evidence of collusion

Discussion: Fox News, Mediaite, RedState, Above the Law, Hot Air, Mother Jones, The Hill, IJR, Axios, ThinkProgress, Shareblue, Gizmodo and Politico

Fox News Insider:
Judge Jeanine Pirro Interview With President Trump

Discussion: Politico, NBC News, Mediaite, New York Times, The Hill, twitchy.com, Salon, Hot Air, Vox, Daily Mail, Washington Post, ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, The Week, Mashable, Daily Kos, TVNewser and Politicus USA, more at Mediagazer »

Wall Street Journal:
Trump Weighs Shake-Up of Press Team

Discussion: Political Wire

Marc Fisher / Washington Post:
Trump has a long history of secretly recording calls, according to former associates

Discussion: Salon, Politico, Vox, IJR and RedState

Alan Dershowitz / Washington Examiner:
Trump did not obstruct justice in firing James Comey

Discussion: Politico and Conservative News Today

Brad Reed / Raw Story:
‘No one can talk sense into him’: CNN guest says even Ivanka seems to have lost control of President Trump

Discussion: AOL

Shannon Vavra / Axios:
Comey turns down Senate invite, won't testify next week

Discussion: The Hill, Hot Air, Politico, twitchy.com, ABC News and Political Wire

Ramesh Ponnuru / National Review:
Trump vs. the Russia Investigations

Discussion: Bloomberg, Hot Air and Patterico's Pontifications

Brandon Carter / The Hill:
Trump suggests WH ‘not have press conferences’ unless he does them himself

Discussion: Associated Press, Fox News Insider, Hot Air, Politico, Axios, TVNewser and Mediaite

Paul Sperry / New York Post:
The real reason Trump canned Jim Comey

Discussion: The Rush Limbaugh Show and Wall Street Journal

Saba Hamedy / CNN:
Warner: Comey won't testify to intel panel next week

Discussion: The Atlantic, Big League Politics, IJR, Joe.My.God. and JONATHAN TURLEY

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Trump's Comey fight spooks Capitol Hill — There is widespread concern among Congressional leadership about Trump's frame of mind in the wake of the Comey firing. — Senior Senate aide: “It has to stop ... never seen anything like this in my entire career.”

Discussion: Politico, Mediaite, Raw Story, ABC News, No More Mister Nice Blog and Washington Monthly

Charles J. Sykes / New York Times:

If Liberals Hate Him, Then Trump Must Be Doing Something Right — If there was one principle that used to unite conservatives, it was respect for the rule of law. Not long ago, conservatives would have been horrified at wholesale violations of the norms and traditions of our political system …

Discussion: Politicaldog101.Com

James Fallows / The Atlantic:
Five Reasons the Comey Affair Is Worse Than Watergate

Discussion: New Yorker, Raw Story, Shakesville, Washington Monthly and New York Magazine

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Trump's Comey firing sets off new round of leaks

Discussion: Politico, Fox News, Axios, Washington Examiner, ABC News, Mediaite, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Hot Air, Raw Story and Political Wire

Bwittes / Lawfare:
Et Tu Rod? Why The Deputy Attorney General Must Resign

Discussion: Washington Post, Take Care Blog, emptywheel, Mediaite, Politico, RedState, The Hill, New York Times, Vox, The Week and ThinkProgress

Wall Street Journal:

Former Trump Adviser Paul Manafort's Bank Records Sought in Probe — Federal investigators looking into Russian election interference requested information; New York investigators also examining his real-estate transactions — The Justice Department last month requested banking records …

Discussion: The Hill and Political Wire

Wall Street Journal:

Financial-Crimes Monitor to Share Records in Trump-Russia Probe — Senate committee requested the data from Treasury's FinCEN — WASHINGTON—A Treasury Department unit that specializes in combating money-laundering will share financial records with an expanding Senate probe …

Discussion: Reuters

Adam Davidson / New Yorker:

The Senate Starts to Look at Trump's Businesses — I spoke recently to a longtime business associate of Donald Trump's, and asked his thoughts about the various investigations into collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. He laughed and said that there is no way Trump could have been part of such a conspiracy.

Discussion: Vox, Political Wire, CNBC and Talking Points Memo

GreAt / Securelist:

WannaCry ransomware used in widespread attacks all over the world — Earlier today, our products detected and successfully blocked a large number of ransomware attacks around the world. In these attacks, data is encrypted with the extension “.WCRY” added to the filenames.

Discussion: Ars Technica, New York Magazine, Snopes.com, Lawfare, WeLiveSecurity, The Guardian, Gizmodo, The Atlantic, Consumerist and NPR, more at Techmeme »

Selena Larson / CNNMoney:
Massive ransomware attack hits 74 countries

Discussion: RedState and WATE-TV

Chris Baraniuk / BBC:
Ransomware infections reported worldwide

Discussion: The Intercept, Gizmodo and Mashable, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:
Hackers Hit Dozens of Countries Exploiting Stolen N.S.A. Tool

Discussion: BBC, The Guardian, Associated Press, Reuters, Politico, The Daily Caller, Al Jazeera English, Engadget, ThinkProgress, New York Magazine, Common Dreams, France 24, Business Insider, The Verge, Gizmodo and Hot Air, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:

‘Looking Like a Liar or a Fool’: What It Means to Work for Trump — WASHINGTON — President Trump has never shown any reluctance to sacrifice a surrogate to serve a short-term political need, so he apparently did not think twice this week about exposing a series of staff members to ridicule …

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Political Wire, Gizmodo and CNBC

Hadas Gold / Politico:

New York Times publisher sends personal appeal to those who canceled over Bret Stephens — New York Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. is making a personal appeal to subscribers who canceled because the paper hired Bret Stephens, a conservative columnist who has questioned …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Kenneth Chang / New York Times:

NASA Denies Trump's Request to Send Astronauts Past the Moon on New Rocket — When NASA launches its new big rocket for the first time — more than a year and a half from now, at the earliest — there will be no astronauts along for the ride. — In February, at the request of the Trump administration …

Discussion: The FADER

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

Why it's likely that Trump does have recordings of his Oval Office conversations — President Trump issued a not-terribly-veiled threat to former FBI director James B. Comey in a tweet Friday morning. … For a guy who has spent the past week being compared to Richard Nixon for firing a man …

Discussion: Salon, Power Line, CNN, ThinkProgress, New York Daily News, Talking Points Memo, TheBlaze, New York Times, Raw Story, The Atlantic and twitchy.com

New York Times:
Trump Warning to Comey Prompts Questions on ‘Tapes’

Sari Horwitz / Washington Post:

Sessions issues sweeping new criminal charging policy — Attorney General Jeff Sessions overturned the sweeping criminal charging policy of former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. and directed his federal prosecutors Thursday to charge defendants with the most serious, provable crimes carrying the most severe penalties.